22 - Check Engine Light

Maya decided it was a hell of a day. The day had begun normally, just a few hours spent under the gloomy light of the rainbow sky; a break from the studying and learning she was doing at Richfield’s knee. Then came the danger, the stupidity, and then the unholy feeling of something just ‘wrong’ with the hole that was left behind from the dimensional bag bomb.

Therefore Maya decided that she was going to do the most destructive thing she could possibly do at the moment.

Maya moodily tore the top off another single serve ice cream container. Shelly, a former friend who had cut all ties with her ‘sisters’ after getting married, had graduated in psychology and had a lot of words to say about emotional eating. Something about cortisol levels and numbing oneself from emotions.

Now, Maya loved food. Her parents, after all, made their money off of heart clogging comfort foods for the masses. One didn’t grow up among double meat, double cheese lasagna, double cheese quesadillas, or even double baked potatoes without having an appreciation for food.

But eating had never been her stress reliever. Running had been. She could have run for miles to burn away all the fear, anger, and morose emotions that had been building up. Two weeks she had been in this world and she hadn’t gone out to run for any of them.

Danger and the unknown had kept her close to, at first, the Hanganathorie and then the pub. Yet it seemed that she didn’t have to go looking for danger, it would come find her. Was there a way she could have prevented Turrethead and Medusa from finding the pub? Were they actively looking for it?

She didn’t know, but she did know that it did not bode well for the Hanganathorie. When she had left, the ship’s rogue AI defender had been killed by her and it left behind a massive pulsing mana core. One that dwarfed the pub’s own. How soon would it be up for grabs again? How soon before some AI moved in to bask in its glow?

Maya finished the ice cream and felt no relief from it, instead it had just coated her mouth with the taste. She sighed and placed the refuse into a trash bag. She smiled at the action, this was literally a trash world and she still tried to refrain from throwing around her own trash.

Emotional eating might not have been her thing, but Maya still managed to dodge and weave around the sore problem that was plaguing her now. It wasn’t the pub, but the truck. Her truck was, to put concisely, fucked up.

“Vaya con Dios, Bonita. You sweet dependable truck, you.”

What occurred after the dimensional bag bomb had gone off, Maya didn’t know. There was a definite break in her recollection after the boom, but the bomb had a shockwave of its own. That had been proven when she had nearly been sucked to the hole in the ground, it also showed with the pub being flipped upside down. For the food truck that had been her lifeline for the last two weeks; it had rolled the truck on its side, after piercing it with debris.

Maya had to admit, she was glad she hadn’t made it back to the truck before the bomb had detonated. It was as if the flechette shotgun had gone off. Shards of metal had slammed into the truck at high velocity, some of it punching through and some of it lodging into the vehicle itself. A long metal pole jutted from the engine block, the distinctive smell of diesel fuel and propane filled the air. Meaning her fuel tank had leaked and one of the propane tanks had taken a hit too.

“There’s your problem,” Maya said looking at the pole in the engine block, “but I can just reset the check engine light and you’ll be fine for another twenty thousand miles.”

She couldn’t open the hood of the truck, nor could she remove the pole in the engine. Whatever had happened had launched the pole with such force it was stuck there for the time being.

The truck lay on its formerly undamaged side. Seemingly having been dragged toward the epicenter of the explosion, as there was a furrow of dirt twenty feet long behind it. Maya shuddered, thankful she hadn’t been sucked into the maw of whatever happened after she had lost consciousness.

The windows were all shattered. The doors pocked with metal shards, the engine leaked oil, radiator fluid, and other liquids like some wounded beast. The only thing she saw that was still fine were the tires.

She entered through the back door of the truck wrinkling her nose at the propane smell. There was some relief that none of the canned food she had stored in the coolers were damaged, albeit they had left their coolers to wander around a bit. The water tank she had fixed with tools from the pub was undamaged also. She inspected its plastic covering and the patch she had applied, all unbroken and nothing leaking out.

Small miracles, but welcomed.

Righting the truck would be a chore, she might have doubled her Physical Strength stats, now at 10, but she didn’t know if that correlated to having double her previous strength. Then again she didn’t think she would have been able to set the truck back on its wheels even if she had five times her strength. She dug around in the scattered tools and kitchenware that cluttered the back and pulled out a bottle hydraulic jack.

She set the jack in a visible spot and began removing excess items from the back of the truck. After a painful hour of stumbling in and out, Maya sat down heavily in the dirt. Her body was still aching, but she realized it wasn’t hurting as much as it had previously. She wondered if movement helped or if her increased stats were the cause. Surely, having nearly doubled all of her Physical stats since arriving would have some other benefit to her health?

Maya wondered about it as she drank some water. She was basically in a sunless world. Was she running low on vitamin D? Was her health going to deteriorate from the high calorie foods she had been eating? Was she even getting a balance diet? The only vegetables had come from cans.

Even with an unbalanced diet and a lot of stress and fear over the last few weeks, Maya realized she felt better than she had ever before. Not now, currently, of course. She was in pain and everything was shit, but before the whole destruction of everything she owned business she had felt great. Her head was clearer, her sleep had been shorter and better, and even though she had felt exhausted from all the learning she was doing; she had kept up the steady pace for days. It had been a slow change, but Maya realized she was different.

She remembered how she had been in the final weeks of university. She had been a stressed mess, half sick with anxiety and being drowned in a lethargic disinterest in everything. That had been the lowest point in her life. She had tried to keep it at bay with running and being social, but it had not helped. Now, though, she was alone in some hellscape with little food and water and in what she would have previously called immense pain, but she felt better than she had ever before.

“Fuck,” Maya sighed. She groaned as she got to her feet, feeling her muscle’s protestations.

One of the tools that the pub had that Maya had been fascinated with was a:

Margono Delux Cold Mana Cutter/Fuser - mid grade, Tier 1

The best tools for all the jobs around the nest.

It was a sci-fi tool she had found in the utility closet. It looked like a hand held no contact infrared thermometer, with a small pistol grip and a small screen at its end. The business end of the device was an inch long translucent crystal that, depending on the setting, extended a cutting blade up to two feet or a six inch long torch that melded metal together. It, of course, ran off of mana and Maya had made sure to charge its batteries and pack an additional one before everything happened.

She exited the truck with the tool in hand. She adjusted the setting and sent out a foot long glowing red blade, enough to chop off all the metal bits embedded in her truck. As she walked around the truck Maya heard a loud noise.

Fear and caution filled her as she crouched down automatically. What was it? Another damn rogue AI?

THUNK!

Maya flinched at the noise and looked around. She was by the rear wheels of the truck and saw what had made the noise. She stared at it, not comprehending what she was seeing. A length of wood with feathers attached vibrated before her. The head of the wooden length was buried into the sheet metal of the truck.

“What the-” she began.

THUNK!

It was an arrow. Maya saw clearly as another arrow appeared mere inches from her eyes. A fucking arrow!

“Shit!” Maya shouted. She half crawled and rolled back toward the back of the truck. Another arrow appeared in the ground where she had been a moment before, she scrambled behind the truck, putting it between her and whatever was firing at her.

Her heart hammered in her chest and she shuddered with adrenaline and terror. Who the fuck was shooting arrows at her? Did the rogue AIs use bows?

Maya hooked the cutter to her vest and summoned the flechette shotgun from her Inventory. Whatever it was, they brought arrows to a gun fight.

She might not have access to the pub’s camera feeds, but one thing Maya had discovered while playing with Tommo’s computer was that it had suite of sensors built into it. It was the way that Tender had been able to see when she had connected his core to the computer.

A window appeared and she adjusted it so that it faced the direction that the arrows had been fired from. In the gloomy light, there was nothing to see but the bulk of the trash pile she was parked next to. The Truck Trash Pile was smaller compared to the Pub Trash Pile, but since the dimensional bomb explosion, a lot of the debris had been pulled off the pile.

A large block of metal lay in the gray dirt and as Maya adjusted the image, she saw a figure appear from a pile of trash and rush toward it. The figure dropped behind the block and then popped back up to quickly look around. That put the figure less than fifty feet from her position.

“Holy shit,” Maya gasped. That was no robot. That was no AI. That was a living being.

It wasn’t its shape or it’s size, but the way it moved. Even Annabelle, who was designed to look as biological as possible, had unnatural motions. Besides Turrethead, Maya had also never seen a humanoid AI nor one that wasn’t at least big and bulky.

The figure was definitely an alien. She zoomed in on the captured video and tried to clean up the image, all the while running another window to make sure she wasn’t rushed. Whoever it was, they didn’t seem to be friendly.

The figure remained behind the block of metal, popping their head up every now and then. They didn’t move, neither rushing nor running.

“Hey!” Maya shouted. “You an AI?”

There was no response.

“Look, bro, I got nothing against you!” Maya continued shouting. She checked the shotgun and her ammunition count.

Richfield had said the flechette shotgun was easy to maintain and the ammo could be made with a few tools and a fabricator. She had tested the weapon a few times. The flechettes were deadly at close range, ripping apart anything unarmored. At a distance, they were more bothersome, the flechettes fanning out in a wide pattern.

“Can you hear me!” Maya shouted again. She took a deep breath and eased her head out from the safety of the truck. Although she could see the figure, she wasn’t ready for the arrow that slammed into the metal beside her head.

“Fuck!” she cried, falling backwards.

She was screwed.

Maya couldn’t make a run for the pub or any other cover. The truck, although surrounded by trash, was in a relatively open area. The attacker could fall back to the pile and maybe snipe at her from it. The only good things were that they were using arrows and not energy weapons or bullets, and they seemed to be a pitiful shot. The first surprise attack should have killed her, but instead it had missed and every shot had come close, but she had gotten away without an arrow in her.

She wasn’t pleased though. She might be alive, but she was trapped. Until when? Until another rogue AI came sniffing around and ended up killing her or both of them. No, this wasn’t like the rogue AIs. There she had the option of running, but here she was trapped and the truck also held everything she owned. She could get away with her skin, maybe, but then that would mean only a couple of days of living until she ran out of water and then food. She had to get this asshole to leave.

Why was that fucker attacking her? She had seen no living beings since arriving, shouldn’t seeing another living person be considered a godsend?

They were in armor, not the futuristic plate armor of the battle bear she had looted, but it looked more like medieval style armor. There were obvious metal and chainmail gleaming in the weak light and she could make out a metal helmet with an opening in the region of the mouth and eyes. The battle bear’s helmet had been an enclosed thing, capable of providing life support and being used as a biological and chemical protective suit.

“Fucking Robin Hood,” Maya hissed.

The alien was humanoid, their neck was long and the head seemed to bob up and down too easily. She saw four arms, two holding what looked like a crossbow and another pair holding a small shield and a sword. Their body was armored and there was a pack that was strapped to their back.

If they had survived the dimensional instability, would that also mean they had access to some of the same Skills she had? Dimensional Awareness, Dimensional Inventory, etc? She didn’t know what the alien was packing in their inventory, but from the looks of it, they weren’t the advanced sci-fi aliens she’d been running into.

Of course, that didn’t mean anything. Richfield had explained some of how crafting worked and how talented masters could imbue armor and weapons with attribute boosts. So even if the alien looked like some fantasy reject, they could be packing a lot of enchanted items.

“Guess it doesn’t enchant aim,” Maya muttered. She took a breath and tried to calm down. “Hey!”

Nothing.

“Look, pal. I mean you no harm. You can go on your merry way and we’ll leave it at that! Alright?”

THUNK!

“Shit! I’ve had a bad fucking day, okay? I don’t need this shit!”

They weren’t leaving and she was trapped. Maya racked her brain, wondering what to do. She needed to end this, one way or another. Maya looked down at her hands, was she contemplating killing another living being?

She shuddered at the thought. It was one thing to fight against the AIs, they weren’t living. It was another to actively kill another living and thinking being. She had her morals, right? Lines she would not cross?

She had barely survived the attacking AIs and the dimensional bomb. She would not let some rattled brained arrow shooter take her out. Maya steeled her nerves and thought again. She had ranged weapons, the pistols and the shotgun, but she still wasn’t keen on the idea of killing whomever that was.

“Damn it,” Maya cursed.

She pulled a charge cylinder from her inventory.

Particle Blaster Charge - 20 shots remaining - low grade, Tier 1

She would miss Richfield’s knowledge on weapons and what things could be done with them. It seemed that the AI had a bit of an interest in all the ways weapons could be abused. A mana battery could be overcharged and cause a small explosion. A laser rifle’s focusing crystals could be misaligned and be used like a scattergun, firing off multiple beams. And a charge cylinder could be used like a mini grenade. As Richfield had said: “Cheap ass low grade, Tier 1 ammo can be made to lose containment, especially destructive mana.”

She weighted her options. She could use the charge cylinder and waste twenty particle blaster shots, or just use the twenty particle blaster shots and try to shoot her way to victory. She realized she didn’t have the killer instincts needed to kill someone.

Maya used the cutter to slice off a thin sliver of metal that made up the cylinder. Then she jammed that sliver of metal into the cylinder casing, there was a soft crunch as something broke, and Maya began to feel a bit of warmth coming off the cylinder. She didn’t have much time now.

She was still behind the truck and didn’t have a clear view of the figure, but she had the computer screens. She wasn’t planning on hitting the alien with the cylinder anyway. It just needed to get above their location.

Maya heaved the cylinder in a high arc, it flashed through the air, the computer keeping track of its movements and overlaying a red reticle upon it. Maya snapped up the shotgun and fired half a dozen shots at the cylinder. No laws against automatic shotguns in the space faring monster hunting multiverse at large.

Discharged destructive mana was a reddish color. It bloomed out with heat and light and small bits of shrapnel, for a moment brighter than the non-existent sun. The bloom of light was about twenty feet in diameter. The expanding cloud enveloped the figure’s position and they flailed around trying to protect themselves from the sudden intense heat.

The moment the ball of heat had begun to shrink, Maya was on her feet and rushing the alien’s position. She felt bits of metal strike her, the exploding casing but ignored it. It stung her exposed skin, but it was just another bit of pain. She saw the head of the alien pop up, smoke rising from its baked armor, and she began firing the shotgun.

The flechettes slammed into the ground around the metal block, the scores of tiny metal pieces blasted up the dust into a thick cloud. Maya jinked in her run and heard the whistle of an arrow piercing the cloud of dust. In a few moments, she plowed through the cloud and leaped upon the metal block, shotgun in hand.

Her heart pounded and she was ready to fire, but she didn’t see the alien; instead she saw the being running away.

A brief moment she contemplated just shooting them in the back. She could do it and no one would stop her. But she came back to reality and summoned the crowbar. She had to figure out what the hell they were after.

The crowbar had become second nature to her, as a weapon and as a tool. Maya moved into a pitcher’s stance and threw the crowbar after the retreating figure. It felt like an extension of her body.

The being was quick, but their legs were short. Like Turrethead, the being dropped to all fours to increase their speed, just like an ape, the two smaller arms seemed to be trying to reload the crossbow as it ran. They loped across the ground, but with her increased strength and skills, the crowbar was faster.

There was a loud crack as the metal slammed into the back of the creature’s head. Maya winced; she had been aiming for a spot between their shoulders. The alien staggered from the strike, made another step forward, and then collapsed into the dirt. Maya summoned her shotgun and ran forward.

The alien was groaning and they pulled off their helmet. It clattered to the ground and Maya watched as the alien vomited into the dirt.

A humanoid face looked up at her, a triangular face with sharp cheekbones, a pointed chin, and a wide mouth full of rounded teeth. Copper gold hair cascaded around the head of the being, glinting in the weak light. Maya couldn’t help but admire that hair, it was like flowing metal.

“Hrk!” the alien cried.

“What the fuck, man!” Maya snapped. She leveled the shotgun at the being, but then felt a wave of dizziness as their eyes locked.

Language module updated. Toszakmari Standard.

“-No harm! I mean you no harm!” the alien cried.

Maya blinked at the message and dismissed it. It seemed the alien also carried a language module inside their head. She had felt the same dizziness and the download of knowledge when she had arrived at the pub. It was an automatic download when two modules came in contact with one another, Tender had informed her.

“It sure looked like you meant me harm!” Maya snapped. She glared at the alien and noticed the new message that appeared.

Belmoro Domakun - Level 30

“Holy shit,” Maya muttered.

“I’m-“ the alien began, but Maya snapped forward and struck the alien across the face with the stock of her shotgun. The alien’s eyes rolled back in their head in a very human manner and they collapsed into the dirt.

“Shit,” Maya gasped. “Level 30?”